1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to techniques of supplying chip parts, and more particularly to techniques effective for supplying chip-shaped electronic parts to a chip mounter.
2. Related Art Statement
It is thought of that, when electronic parts such as a semiconductor, a resistor and a capacitor, which are formed into chip shapes, are mounted onto a printed circuit board or the like, a tape which retains thereon chip parts in a row at a predetermined interval is intermittently fed from a tape supply section such as a tape reel into a chip takeout section, where the chip parts are taken out from the tape and fed to a chip mounter by which chip parts are mounted onto the printed circuit board.
However, in general, according to techniques of this type, a driving source for supplying chip parts is provided separately from a driving source for the chip mounter. Because of this, a chip feeder suffers from the great problem that the chip feeder becomes complicated in construction and large in size, thus resulting in costs increase.
Then, the present inventor proposed a chip feeder (U.S. Pat. No. 4,768,915) simplified in construction and compact in size and produced at reduced costs. This chip feeder is arranged such that a tape guide interval can be changed in accordance with a change in the width of the tape, and a tape feed pitch can be changed in accordance with a change of a pitch of a row in which the chip parts are arranged.
The inventor of the present invention devoted himself to the study of the chip feeder of this type and found that the following problems were to be solved.
Firstly, in a tape, to retain chip parts in chip parts holding holes of a retaining tape, i.e. a main body of the tape, the chip parts are covered by a protective tape or a seal tape, so that this protective tape should be peeled off from the retaining tape when the chip parts are taken out. When the protective tape, which has been peeled off, is merely left suspended, the problems are presented that a worker is entangled with the protective tape and his smooth working is obstructed, or static electricity is accumulated.
Secondly, the chip parts are taken out in the chip parts takeout position after the protective tape has been peeled off, and, there is a possibility that the chip parts jump out of or dislodge from the chip parts holding holes due to external force such as vibrations during a move from the peel-off position to the takeout position.
Thirdly, when the thickness of the tape is changed due to a change of thickness of the chip parts, an error during production or the like, if this change in the thickness is not properly absorbed, then, there is a possibility that takeout of the chip parts from the retaining tape or feed of the tape becomes unreliable.